There have been, and will continue to be, many booklists and book recommendations about World War I. This is in no way an exhaustive list, but rather an attempt to highlight some of the titles available at the moment, beginning with my ‘coup de coeur’, Five Children on the Western Front. Five Children on the …
May saw the publication of two brand new series by bestselling author Holly Webb. Though she is best known for her animal stories, these two series focus on different genres, although interestingly both feature a dog as one of the main characters! Maisie Hitchins: The Case of the Stolen Sixpence with artwork by Marion Lindsay (Stripes …
Theresa Breslin (Random House Children’s Books) When young Zarita makes exaggerated accusations against a beggar to her Magistrate father, she cannot foresee that the catastrophic consequences will not only be instant but that they will also resonate for years to come. Her life is changed for ever, and so is the life of the beggar’s son, Saulo, …
Sophie McKenzie(Usborne) When Joe, Scarlett and their dog Pippy come aboard the mysterious luminous train that has appeared, out of nowhere, in the middle of the park, they are not sure where it will take them. They certainly do not expect to go back in time, but soon find themselves amidst an air raid in 1941 London. It …
K A Gerrard (text) & Emma Dodd (illustrations)(Templar) While doing an errand for his mum, Charlie and his dog Bandit fall down a hole and find themselves transported back in time to ancient Rome, at the time of Hadrian’s rule. He soon meets Cosmo, a young Roman boy, son of a senator, and finds himself …
Sharon Dogar(Andersen Press) Everyone knows Anne Frank’s story, her life hidden at the top of those stairs in Amsterdam, and her untimely death. 31 million copies of her diary, which is translated in 67 languages, have been sold across the world. So we know the story, HER side of the story. But the Franks were …
Eve Edwards(Puffin)1582, England. Ellie, Lady Eleanor Rodriguez of San Jaime, is in possession of a rather undesirable lineage in the Elizabethan Court : her mother, although deceased, was Spanish and therefore Catholic, and her father is a scholas but also a gold-seeking alchemist. Four years previously, they were ran off the estate of the Earl of Dorset after his father wasted his …
Mary Hooper(Bloomsbury Children’s Books) Having given birth to a stillborn illegitimate child, Grace Parkes, who is not yet 16, finds herself boarding at train to Brookwood Cemetery, where she hopes to leave her son’s body in someone else’s coffin, allowing him the burial that she herself cannot afford. Although born in a “good” family, Grace …
Cora Harrison (Macmillan Children’s Books) It is 1791, and shy, sensible Jenny Cooper and her bold cousin Jane Austen are in a rather bad way. Jane is very sick with a fever and the cruel and rather unscrupulous headmistress of their girls’ boarding school is refusing to contact Jane’s parents. Jenny feels she has no …
Paul Dowswell(Bloomsbury) Peter (Piotr, as he is known at the beginning of the book) is a Polish orphan of German descent. His parents were killed during the first day of the Soviet invasion of Poland and he has been living in squalor in a Polish orphanage ever since. But when Nazis come in to the …
